Anna Sewell
Anna Sewell of Britain wrote
Black Beauty
, the classic of children, in 1877.
Great lover of this kind and generous woman for horses and her desire to see them better treated resulted in the most celebrated animal story of the 19th century.
A strict Quaker family, who lived at Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, brought her to believe in the importance of self-reliance, moral responsibility and "tender consideration for the Creatures of God." From an early age, she developed a strong love of animals and abhorred any form of cruelty. A seemingly natural affinity and experience of a lifetime bore the evident great knowledge of horsemanship. Anna received her education at home from her mother, who accomplished ballads, instilled well a sense of duty and religion, and also filled the house with music, painting and poetry; Anna quickly proved a capable pianist and artist. Anna already suffered from a crippling bone disease; and a fall at 14 years of age in 1834 left her an invalid for the rest of her life. She relied on a pony cart to transport her before her mid-thirties. Characteristically, she never used a whip and intended to "induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses."
Confined to her room through ill health, Anna started in 1871 but later abandoned the project until 1876. Afraid that she lived not to see the book published, she worked laboriously despite failing health. Her mother found a publisher for the book, and a delighted Anna saw her work in print in November 1877. She died five months later, and the family buried her at its plot near Old Catton in Norfolk. Anna lived not to see the effect of her "little book" on the millions of readers around the world. People translated it into many languages, and several attempted at filming it. As Anna expected, the book exercised great influence on the treatment of animals, a fact that the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) highlighted in recommendation.
See Also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Sewell
“Master said, God had given men reason, by which they could find things out for themselves; but he had given animals knowledge which did not depend on reason, and which was more prompt and perfect in it's way, and by which they had often saved the lives of men.”
“I was quite happy in my new place, and if there was one thing that I missed, it must not be thought I was discontented; all who had to do with me were good, and I had a light airy stable and the best of food. What more could I want? Why, liberty!”
“What right had they to make me suffer like that?”
“Why don't they cut their own children's ears into points to make them look sharp? Why don't they cut off their noses to make them look plucky? One would be just as sensible as the other. What right have they to torment and disfigure God's creatures?”
“Now look, for instance, at the way they serve dogs, cutting off their tails to make them look plucky, and shearing up their pretty little ears to a point to make them look sharp”
“If they strain me up tight, why, let 'em look out! I can't bear it, and I won't.”
“Oh! if people knew what a comfort to a horse a light hand is, and how it keeps a good mouth and a good temper, they would surely not chuck, and drag, and pull at the rein as they often do.”
“He said cruelty was the devil's own trade-mark, and if we saw any one who took pleasure in cruelty we might know who he belonged to, for the devil was a murderer from the beginning, and a tormentor to the end. On the other hand, where we saw people who loved their neighbors, and were kind to man and beast, we might know that was God's mark.”
“Only ignorance! only ignorance! how can you talk about only ignorance? Don't you know that it is the worst thing in the world, next to wickedness? -- and which does the most mischief heaven only knows. If people can say, 'Oh! I did not know, I did not mean any harm,' they think it is all right.”
“It is good people who make good places.”
“I said, 'I have heard people talk about war as if it was a very fine thing.' Ah!' said [Captain], 'I should think they never saw it. No doubt it is very fine when there is no enemy, when it is just exercise and parade, and sham-fight. Yes, it is very fine then; but when thousands of good brave men and horses are killed, or crippled for life, it has a very different look.' Do you know what they fought about?' said I. No,' he said, 'that is more than a horse can understand, but the enemy must have been awfully wicked people, if it was right to go all that way over the sea on purpose to kill them.”
“Now I say, that with cruelty and oppression it is everybody's business to interfere when they see it; you did right my boy.”
“If you in the morningThrow minutes away,You can't pick them upIn the course of a day.You may hurry and scurry,And flurry and worry,You've lost them forever,Forever and aye.”
“Do you know why this world is as bad as it is?... It is because people think only about their own business, and won't trouble themselves to stand up for the oppressed, nor bring the wrong-doers to light... My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”
“If a thing is right it can be done, and if it is wrong it can be done without; and a good man will find a way.”
“My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”
“There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham - all a sham, James, and it won't stand when things come to be turned inside out and put down for what they”
“My troubles are all over, and I am at home; and often before I am quite awake, I fancy I am still in the orchard at Birtwick, standing with my old friends under the apple trees.”
“We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.”